Manti Te'o said he had developed an emotional relationship a woman he had met online and was "the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke.

Written by

Jack Carey
USA TODAY

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick maintained at a news conference Wednesday night that All-American linebacker Manti Te'o was the victim of an elaborate hoax that led him to believe a young woman he had identified as his girlfriend "Lennay Kekua" had died of leukemia in September.

The school hired an investigative firm to look into the issue after Te'o told his coaches Dec. 26 that he had received a telephone call at a postseason awards show in Orlando telling him the girl was not dead.

The school did not comment on the alleged hoax until Wednesday after ...